The present invention relates to a multipart splitter/divider or combiner. It finds particular, but not exclusive, use in allowing a single transceiver to be connected to a plurality of antennas, power amplifiers, oscillators or other devices. As understood by those skilled in the art, it is often advantageous to be able to drive more than one transmitting antenna, or to receive signals from more than one receiving antenna. For example, having more than one receive antenna allows a degree of receive diversity to be employed and can increase the received signal strength. However, due to problems in impedance mismatch, it is not a simple matter of connecting more than one antenna to the respective input or output of a transceiver. The present invention provides improvements in the field of radio frequency (RF) combiners/splitters and related circuitry.
Throughout the specification which follows, reference will be made to splitting or dividing a signal into two or more components, but the skilled person will appreciate that such description also includes combining two or more signals together, since these structures are intrinsically bi-directional. Additional background information may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 8,040,204 B2, Oct. 18, 2011, entitled “Radio Frequency Combiners/Splitters” (Brown), which describes the well-known Wilkinson Divider/Combiner and an improved RF divider arranged in the form of a microstrip circuit. See also, U.S. Pat. No. 8,368,485 B2, Feb. 5, 2013, “Radio Frequency Combiners/Splitters”.